Why Penn Won’t Talk About Donald Trump

November 7, 2016DAN SPINELLI POLITICO Magazine

While Hillary Clinton’s Wellesley College prepares for an election night jubilee, the mood at Donald Trump’s alma mater in West Philadelphia is closer to terrified. At Wharton, one of the world’s most respected (and demanding) business schools, students have recoiled at being linked to a wheeler-dealer whose business record suggests more skill at financial chicanery than genuine company-building. Thousands of alumni have signed an anti-Trump open letter. (There has been no pro-Trump open letter.) And on Penn’s main campus, “Trump” has become a lightning rod for a year’s worth of student protests on issues like Islamophobia and sexual assault.